The 100 Most Trustworthy Companies In America

Kathryn Dill
,
Forbes Staff
The workforce, the workplace, and the future of both.

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“In each grouping,” states MSCI, “we highlight companies that are most transparent and reporting accurately on their financial outcomes, whether good or bad.”

In a departure from last year, none of the companies on the list achieved a perfect AGR of 100.

Among large cap companies,
American Electric Power Company, which appeared on this list for the first time in 2015, claims the highest current AGR, 96, and ties with
Atmos Energy Corporation for the highest average AGR over the past four quarters, 95.

American Eagle Outfitters and
Granite Construction tie for the highest current AGR among mid cap companies, 99, while Comfort Systems USA claims the highest average AGR over the past four quarters, also 99.

Companies are grouped by cap size and listed alphabetically.

Among small caps, there is a four-way tie for highest current AGR, with
Computer Programs & Systems,
FutureFuel Corp., Gorman-Rupp Co., and M/I Homes all achieving AGRs of 99. Gorman-Rupp Co. ties with Petmed Express for the highest average AGR over the past four quarters, 96.

In general, companies that make this list can be relied upon to accurately report financial outcomes, for better or worse. So while there’s no guarantee that an honest company is a thriving one, the majority of the companies here are financial sound, demonstrating strong stock performance, and providing shareholders with greater levels of transparency.

“A company that has a large number of restructurings or other mergers, things like that will tend to trigger enough other metrics that they won’t’ make it into this top 100 because those are things that hurt transparency," said Grunfeld. “We want to see companies that are reflecting their underlying economics and not borrowing revenues from the future, deferring expenses but just reporting what is going on with them.”